INFORMATION TO USERS This manuscript has been reproduced from the microfihn master. UMI films the text directly from the original or copy submitted. Thus, some thesis and dissertation copies are in typewriter 6 ce, while others may be from any type o f computer printer. The quality of this reproduction is dependent upon the quality of the copy submitted. Broken or indistinct print, colored or poor quality illustrations and photographs, print bleedthrough, substandard margins, and improper alignment can adversely affect reproduction. In the unlikely event that the author did not send UMI a complete manuscript and there are missing pages, these will be noted. Also, if unauthorized copyright material had to be removed, a note will indicate the deletion. Oversize materials (e.g., maps, drawings, charts) are reproduced by sectioning the original, beginning at the upper left-hand comer and continuing from left to right in equal sections with small overlaps. Each original is also photographed in one exposure and is included in reduced form at the back of the book. Photographs included in the original manuscript have been reproduced xerogr^hically in this copy. Higher quality 6 ” x 9” black and white photographic prints are available for any photographs or illustrations appearing in this copy for an additional charge. Contact UMI directly to order. UMI A Bell & Howell Information Company 300 North Zed) Road, Ann Arbor MI 48106-1346 USA 313/761-4700 800/521-0600 HEREWARD AND OUTLAWRY IN FENLAND CULTURE: A STUDY OF LOCAL NARRATIVE AND TRADITION IN MEDIEVAL ENGLAND DISSERTATION Presented in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree Doctor of Philosophy in the Graduate School of The Ohio State University By Timothy J. Lundgren, B.A., M.A. ***** The Ohio State University 1996 Dissertation Committee: Approved by Professor Nicholas Howe, Adviser I'Lo;-'' Professor Patrick B. Mullen Advisor, English Department Professor Alan K. Brown UMI Number: 9710612 Copyright 1997 by Lundgrenf Timothy J. All rights reserved. UMI Microform 9710612 Copyright 1997, by UMI Company. All rights reserved. This microform edition Is protected against unauthorized copying under Title 17, United States Code. UMI 300 North Zeeb Road Ann Arbor, MI 48103 ABSTRACT Building on recent work in medieval folklore seeking new ways to historicize the literature and traditions of the Middle Ages, this dissertation depicts the social environments inhabited by medieval outlaws and their roles in those environments. 1 trace outlawry and related terms, such as exile and excommunication, through a variety of Anglo-Saxon documents, providing examples of outlawry in theory and practice. This diverse material allows us to see how outlaw stories were told, recreating the cultural context for outlaw-hero narratives; it also demonstrates close links between Anglo-Saxon ideas of outlawry, excommunication, and exile, all themes important to Old English literature. After exploring the political and cultural bases of outlawry, I turn to the earliest cycle of outlaw narrative in England, the eleventh-century Gesta Herewardi. Unpolished and based on local traditions, the Gesta provides insights into the construction of outlaw-hero legends, as well as the social and historical circumstances of their telling. Although the Gesta has long been regarded as a product of early nationalistic spirit, it is more than early stories of English nationalism and racial identity politics. Written by a monk, the Gesta reveals the monasteries of the East Midland fenlands reconstructing their mythologies to fit changing roles after the Norman Conquest. The process of translating Hereward narratives from popular legend to institutional history, as well as from English to Latin, reveals how the fenland monasteries reworked popular legends into institutional texts as part of their reaction to societal changes in the eleventh and twelfth centuries. Traditions about Hereward are also recorded in a variety of chronicles in and around the East Midland fenlands. Read in relation to one another, these legends form an essential link in the outlaw-hero storytelling tradition that extends from the Old English stories of Godwin to the later insular romances. Ultimately, this dissertation reveals the neglected early history of a long-lived popular and literary tradition, exploring its relationship to local culture, providing insight into the ways that popular legends capture and present the cultural beliefs underlying regional political turmoil, and highlighting the ways that these legends are worked into official and institutional texts. Ill Dedicated with love to my father and mother, Richard and Margaret Lundgren; their constant support, encouragement, and unflagging faith that I would complete this project motivated me to keep working even though the task sometimes seemed endless. And also to my wife, Tess Lundgren, who has not only freely provided me with the time and space to pursue this degree, but has actively assisted me through daily words and acts of help, encouragment, and love. And to Abigail Lundgren, who gave me the final push to finish this. IV ACKNOWLEDGMENTS I would like to particularly acknowledge the untiring efforts of Professor Nicholas Howe, who demonstrated astonishing stamina in reading draft after draft of these chapters, and yet still always managed to be an interested, insightful, and extremely helpful reader and critic. I would further like to gratefully acknowledge that this dissertation was supported in part by a National Endowment for the Humanities Dissertation Fellowship. VITA 1985 A.B. Hope College, Holland, MI 1991...................................................................M.A. University of Colorado, Boulder, CO PUBLICATIONS “The Robin Hood Ballads and the English Outlaw Tradition.” Southern Folklore 53 (3) (1996). FIELDS OF STUDY Major Field: English VI TABLE OF CONTENTS Page Abstract................................................................................................................................ii Acknowledgments ..............................................................................................................v Vita......................................................................................................................................vi Chapter I : Introduction - Ooutlaws and Outlaw Narratives in Anglo-Saxon England.... 1 Chapter 2: Placing the Gesta Herewardi in Context ........................................................... 48 Chapter 3: The Gesta Herewardi and the Making of a Monastic Hero ............................. 95 Chapter 4: Hereward beyond the Gesta...............................................................................138 Bibliography.......................................................................................................................173 VII CHAPTER 1 INTRODUCTION: OUTLAWS AND OUTLAW NARRATIVES IN ANGLO-SAXON ENGLAND Outlaw narratives have not generally been considered as a genre by literary scholars, although several familiar works from the Middle Ages focus on outlaws, most notably the romance of Gamelyn, and the Robin Hood ballads. If we can include the exile and the excommunicant within our conception of the outlaw, as I will argue a medieval audience may well have, then a much larger body of literature becomes relevant. Exile and dispossession are ancient themes in English literature, present in the very earliest works from the Anglo-Saxon period. It is at that point that I wish to begin, then, with a survey of the development of outlaws and outlaw narratives in the Anglo-Saxon period. An understanding of the origins and form of the early outlaw legends will enable us to better interpret the causes of the later changes and developments in the genre. Past studies of Anglo-Saxon outlawry have been undertaken primarily by historians and have been mostly based upon the evidence of legal codes, which is essentially prescriptive evidence in the sense that the laws set forth what should ideally be happening in the kingdom. Although more recent work on Anglo-Saxon legal procedure has begun to turn to the descriptive evidence to be found in letters, charters, chronicles, and similar documents that provide a broader look at the actual application of the legal prescriptions (Wormald, “Charters”; Keynes, “Fonthill”), there has still been very little attempt to look at the narrative accounts of outlaws in the Anglo-Saxon period as stories. By looking primarily at narrative sources, I intend in this chapter to illuminate the remnants of an Old English outlaw hero storytelling tradition, to demonstrate how a knowledge of that tradition can usefully aid our reading of Old English literature, and also to lay the groundwork for looking at the most extended collection of outlaw narratives growing out of the Anglo-Saxon period, those surrounding the eleventh century outlaw Hereward. To study the documents of Anglo-Saxon outlawry we must first divorce ourselves from our twentieth century conceptions of what outlawry means. The fact that the term utlah [outlaw] entered the English language in the Anglo-Saxon period and has been in common use since then makes it easy for us to mistakenly apply twentieth century conceptions of the word’s meaning to its use in the seventh through the eleventh centuries. It is helpful, as a corrective, to remember that the Anglo-Saxon period was a time when there was no police force, but when all citizens had to be placed under the authority of some responsible lord or